# humidity keeps on dropping in my humidor



## pipinho (Aug 27, 2011)

prepped my humidor by wiping it down and leaving a soaked sponge in it for 24 hours, then i put in my cigars and boveda humipacks and my humidity keeps on dropping. I am not sure if it's because it's a large humidor and the humipacks are not enough. What did i do wrong?


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## orca99usa (May 23, 2008)

There are several possibilities. There could be a problem with the seal on your humidor allowing moisture to escape. You hit on another: That your humidor may be larger than your humidification system can keep up with. The vendor who sold you the Boveda packs may be of some help. If the cigars are exceptionally dry they could also be pulling a lot of the humidity out of the air in the humidor. The more cigars that were put in, the bigger the draw on the native moisture. Depending upon how long the humidor sat before you seasoned it, it may require re-seasoning. If the wood is very dry it will keep pulling moisture out of the air even if you have seasoned it (I had one do this, seasoning it a second time cured the problem).


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## pipinho (Aug 27, 2011)

this humidor is huge, i think it's a 200 count humidor, perhaps i didn't have enough packs in it.


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## Habanolover (Feb 22, 2006)

Benjamin, I would not recommend wiping down the wood in the humidor. Although not likely with a quality humidor you are still running the possibility of warping the wood and making it leak bad and possibly rendering it useless. Check out H&T's thread that I have linked below.

*http://www.cigarforums.net/forums/vb/cigar-accessory-discussion/265096-how-herf-n-turf-seasons-new-humidor.html*

Also I am going to move this to the Accesrories section for you.


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## morganti (Jul 16, 2012)

A few questions:
Does it have a glass lid? If so, then it may not have a good seal around the glass. 
How long have the cigars been in the humidor? If you just dropped them in, it may take a day or two for things to balance out, or the cigars may have been dry.

Do the bill test with your humidor. Get a $5 bill close the lid on it and pull the bill, if the bill slides out easily it's not sealing properly, if you close the lid and you can pull the humidor across the table then it's too tight. You want something in between.


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## TonyBrooklyn (Jan 28, 2010)

pipinho said:


> prepped my humidor by wiping it down and leaving a soaked sponge in it for 24 hours, then i put in my cigars and boveda humipacks and my humidity keeps on dropping. I am not sure if it's because it's a large humidor and the humipacks are not enough. What did i do wrong?


Do as Donnie says and go to Don's thread on how to season a humi worth its weight in gold!
Good luck peace my brother!


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## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

Yeah, my guess is you got in too big of a hurry; check out the seasoning thread!


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## jurgenph (Jun 29, 2011)

you can't properly season a humidor in 24 hours.


J.


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## pipinho (Aug 27, 2011)

well i took out all the cigars and put the boveda packs back in. hopefully If i let it rest another day the humidity will lvl out.


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## pipinho (Aug 27, 2011)

btw should i use the sponge thingy that came with the humidor? Because right now my options are either that or the boveda packs...


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## Habanolover (Feb 22, 2006)

What % are the packs? If they are anything under 70% I would use them at least for now. The floral foam is known to promote the growth of mold if a vigilant eye is not kept on it.


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## pipinho (Aug 27, 2011)

they area 72% packets. Also how do you use the beads? Are there other options than putting them in a stocking??


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## pipinho (Aug 27, 2011)

also does it matter where i buy the humidity beads from? does it have to be from heartfelt? I live in Orange County and it can get very dry so im thinking any 70% bead will do...


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## HIM (Sep 12, 2012)

Doesn't really matter where you get your beads. I have heartfelt beads in one humi and Xikar gel beads in another. With my Xikar beads I just put it them in the humidor and left the humidor alone. After a couple days it leveled out and seasoned the humidor in the process. If your RH is high after a few days just open the humidor and let it air out for a bit.


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## pipinho (Aug 27, 2011)

well it's staying constant at 60%, let's hope that it starts rising to 65~70


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## TMcNasty (Dec 18, 2012)

Sounds like you did a fast seasoning. I did the same, but I wiped my inside like 4-5 times in 24 hours and had like 3 sponges in there. Oops.  Would have all been fine except the integrated digital hygrometer was reading 8-10% low so my humi was at like 80-82% for 6 weeks. I managed to overhumidify a big stash of pricey cigars that way. I'm down in the mid-60's now so they should be fine shortly. You're ok at 60. It'll prolly creep up as the wood finishes moistening up. Toss that moist sponge back in for 24 hrs to help feed the wood.


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## pipinho (Aug 27, 2011)

it dropped under 60 so i put the sponge back in....


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## pipinho (Aug 27, 2011)

it's at 65 hmm.. will keep the sponge in over night and see what happens. even if the rh goes over 72 the boveda packs should start absorbing the excess anyway.


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## pittjitsu (Mar 30, 2012)

patience is your friend when it comes to most aspects of cigars. Take your time with seasoning the humi. Leave the sponge in there for a few days replacing it's lost moisture once a day. Once you see the humi stable in the 70% rh area for 2 days straight, THEN go ahead and add your media and cigars. Dont hurry the process.


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## pipinho (Aug 27, 2011)

hmm the humidity is down to 62% and that's with the boveda packs and the moist sponge inside.. It could be that the analog hygrometer is messed up...


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## Fuzzy (Jun 19, 2011)

pipinho said:


> hmm the humidity is down to 62% and that's with the boveda packs and the moist sponge inside.. It could be that the analog hygrometer is messed up...


Unless you have a high buck hair analog hygrometer, I would say it is your problem. The cheap factory analog I have read 75% with the salt test. Lucky me, I thought! I put it in an airtight container with a 65% Boveda and it read 58% after four days. It is now used to plug the hole it was fit for and disregarded all the time.


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## pipinho (Aug 27, 2011)

i think that's it. also wow cigars do suck in humidity don't they? i put in 11 cigars and the humidity just dropped. can't wait till my beads come with my digital hygrometer.


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## pipinho (Aug 27, 2011)

well have a xigar digital hygrometer and it reads 64% RH. My guess is that my humidor was bone dry and my cigars were are on the dry side. I have a 6 boveda packs and 2 water pillows along with two plastic shot glasses with moist sponges in them. Until my heartfelt beads come, i simply don't have another option.


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## Sdober (Dec 20, 2012)

Nice post,,, and very informative..keep it up.


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